Peace in the Storm - Promise of God (Luke 8:22-25)
Do you have peace?
Jesus Calms a Storm
22 One day he got into a boat with his disciples, and he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side of the lake.” So they set out, 23 and as they sailed he fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water and were in danger. 24 And they went and woke him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” And he awoke and rebuked the wind and the raging waves, and they ceased, and there was a calm. 25 He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and they marveled, saying to one another, “Who then is this, that he commands even winds and water, and they obey him?”
Jesus Calms a Storm
23 And when he got into the boat, his disciples followed him. 24 And behold, there arose a great storm on the sea, so that the boat was being swamped by the waves; but he was asleep. 25 And they went and woke him, saying, “Save us, Lord; we are perishing.” 26 And he said to them, “Why are you afraid, O you of little faith?” Then he rose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm. 27 And the men marveled, saying, “What sort of man is this, that even winds and sea obey him?”
Jesus Calms a Storm
35 On that day, when evening had come, he said to them, “Let us go across to the other side.” 36 And leaving the crowd, they took him with them in the boat, just as he was. And other boats were with him. 37 And a great windstorm arose, and the waves were breaking into the boat, so that the boat was already filling. 38 But he was in the stern, asleep on the cushion. And they woke him and said to him, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?” 39 And he awoke and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, “Peace! Be still!” And the wind ceased, and there was a great calm. 40 He said to them, “Why are you so afraid? Have you still no faith?” 41 And they were filled with great fear and said to one another, “Who then is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?”
Jesus rebuked (lit., “ordered”; cf. 1:25) the wind and said to the waves, “Be silent! Be muzzled and remain so!” (the force of the Gr. perf. tense, pephimōso) This verb, “be muzzled,” was somewhat of a technical term for dispossessing a demon of his power (cf. 1:25) and may suggest that Jesus recognized demonic powers behind the ferocious storm. But at His command the wind stopped and the lake became completely calm.
Jesus rebuked His disciples for being afraid (deiloi, “cowardly fear”) in a crisis. Despite Jesus’ tutoring (vv. 11, 34) it still had not dawned on them that God’s authority and power were present in Jesus. This is what He meant by His second question, Do you still have no faith? (cf. 7:18; 8:17–21, 33; 9:19)
In stilling the storm Jesus assumed the authority exercised only by God in the Old Testament (cf. Pss. 89:8–9; 104:5–9; 106:8–9; 107:23–32). That is why the disciples were terrified (lit., “feared a great fear”) when they saw that even the forces of nature did obey Him. The verb “terrified” (from phobeomai, “have awe;” cf. deilos, “cowardly fear,” in Mark 4:40) refers to a reverence that overtakes people in the presence of supernatural power (cf. 16:8). However, their question to one another, Who is this? indicated that they did not fully comprehend the significance of it all.
As the boat proceeds eastward across the sea with Jesus asleep onboard, “a squall came down on the lake, so that the boat was being swamped and they were in great danger” (v. 23). The disciples, some of them veteran fishermen, know their imminent danger and awaken Jesus, “Master, Master, we’re going to drown!” (v. 24). The description recalls the similar situation of Jonah 1:4–6, in which the captain upbraids Jonah for sleeping while he and the crew are “perishing” (LXX apollyein)—the same Greek word translated “we’re going to drown” (v. 24: NIV). The word for “Master,” epistatēs, occurs in the NT only in Luke, always in reference to Jesus, and all save one from the mouth of disciples.129 Those committed to Jesus as Master can be wholly honest and transparent before him, even with doubts and fears. People who face imminent death are reminded who is Master. Jesus arose and “rebuked” the storm, after which a calm hushed the waves—again like the calm that ensued when Jonah had been thrown overboard (Jonah 1:15). The word for “rebuke,” epitiman, occurring frequently in Luke and the Synoptics, derives from the vocabulary of Jewish exorcists with reference to “the commanding word, uttered by God or his spokesman, by which evil powers are brought into submission and the way is thereby prepared for the establishment of God’s righteous rule in the world.” Jesus’ power over aberrant nature—and over aberrant human nature in the following story of the Gerasene demoniac (8:35)—exemplifies his ultimate power as the Strong Man who overpowers Satan and “divides his plunder” (11:21–22).
Once the storm is quelled, Jesus asks the disciples, “Where is your faith?” (v. 25). In the Third Gospel the faith of a number of nondisciples is praised, including the four men carrying the paralytic (5:20) and the centurion in Capernaum (7:9). Likewise, to the sinful woman (7:50), the hemorrhaging woman (8:48), the Samaritan leper (17:19), and the blind man in Jericho (18:42)—all nondisciples—Jesus declares, “Your faith has saved you.” Luke also addresses the faith of the disciples, of course, but in each instance their faith is questioned (v. 25; 8:48; 22:32). This should not surprise us. The call to follow Jesus in daily discipleship (9:23!) and enter into “the mysteries of the kingdom of God” (8:10) is harder and more complex than responding to a single encounter with Jesus, even a miraculous encounter. Prolonged experience with Jesus inevitably means that initial understandings must yield to deeper understandings, and deeper understandings often elicit deeper questions. These disciples had surely seen Jesus’ healings and works of power, the very things expected of the Messiah. But supremacy over the cataracts of nature far exceeded the words and powers of Israel’s expected Messiah. The quelling of the storm is reminiscent of Jonah 1, as we have noted, and the rescue of perishing sailors is a testimony to God’s “unfailing love” (Ps 107:23–32). In the OT only God stills storms such as this (so too Ps 65:7; 89:9; 104:7; 106:9; T. Adam 3:1). On the lake Jesus has done what only God can do; and equally like God, he does it without prayer.134 This wholly new experience of Jesus evokes new questions from the disciples. “Who is this?” they ask. “He commands even the winds and the water, and they obey him” (v. 25). These are the right questions. The right questions lead not to pat and ready answers, but to awe and wonder in the presence of Jesus.